The City of Cape Town’s MMC for Urban Mobility, Rob Quintas, described a meeting, with several disability organisations, on Tuesday morning, as ‘’impactful’’
This comes as organisations staged a picket outside the Cape
Town Civic Centre, on Monday morning, in protest against planned cuts to the Dial-a-Ride service. The City announced that, from 8 September, the service
will be restricted to wheelchair users and people with severe walking
impairments.
COURTESY: Facebook - Western Cape Network on DisabilitySpeaking on Bush Radio’s Sakhisizwe show on Tuesday,
Quintas says the meeting was to discuss possible solutions and a way forward. He
added that scaling back Dial-a-Ride services is not by choice, but due to
budget constraints the municipality is facing.
‘’I just came from a meeting with the disability sector
steering committee, which comprises of multiple organisations. We had our our
first meeting, post the Dial-A-Ride protest yesterday, and we will be meeting with
them again in eight weeks. We noted that a lot of commuters arrived yesterday
at the civic Center utilising minibus taxis. We know that this is not always an
ideal situation. However, it shows that there is that option for people to
access public transport. Those who are able to utilise e-handling platforms,
that offer assist vehicles. And then, the adaption to utilising where My Citi operates
currently and where we are going to be running out with phase 2A. The City will
continue to engage our partners in terms of, the Passenger Rail Association of
South Africa (Prasa) and Golden Arrow Bus Service and others, around greater,
universal access for persons with different abilities to be able to access,
wider public transport.’’
‘’There is a lot of of adaption that is being forced upon
commuters, and we are very aware of how disruptive that is, but one of the
positives from today's meeting is that, there is going to be, I believe and
hope, great collaboration with the disability sector, in terms of the advocacy
space with the City to appeal to in various avenues for that additional funding
that will be able to allow us to return the service to what it was and
potentially increase or widen the service, if that sustainable ongoing,
financial commitment is received - whether it be grant funding or sponsorships –
that that remains to be seen, but we are open to pursuing this, in partnership
with the disability forum. Definitely,’’ said Rob Quintas, MMC for urban
Mobility.
DPSA (Disabled People South Africa) leader, Bongani Yamba,
says cutting the service will have a devastating impact on persons with
disabilities.
‘’The reason we had that march was we were supporting the Dial-A-Ride
users as the disability sector. The downscaling of the number of those vans,
which are very crucial in the lives of persons with disabilities. Some of them
are economically active, they are going to their workplaces. Some of these
members are going to their appointment, doctor's appointments. Even those that
are working, they still need to do the shoppings. So when you cut that kind of
a service, now you are saying to them they must then bound by their beds and
sit and stay at home. So that was an outcry on our side. And in fact, it was
infringing on human's rights.’’
‘’The memorandum was written in braille because we wanted
them [municipality] to feel, what happens to a person who is blind as they are
writing everything normal paper as if there are no persons with sight
challenges. The gist of it was that we are demanding that the government or the
City of Cape Town must restore those vans; make sure that they are accessible
to everybody that is in need of those vans so that their life can be equal to
everybody,’’ added Yamba.
Quintas confirmed that a memorandum of grievances was
handed over to him, adding that a written response will be given at the end of
this week.
‘’So in general terms, there is about a ten working day
timeline in which, the recipient for the memorandum needs to reply or respond.
I have committed, today in the meeting that was held with the various organisations
that represent the sort of steering committee for the disability sector, that I
will make every effort to respond to it in writing, by the end of this week.’’
‘’The fact that it was delivered, in braille, shows the
importance of that messaging was not lost on me. I leaned over to one of the
organisers and asked her if she had a copy that could be sent to me that would
allow me to be able to read it, before we entered into our meeting today. And,
you know, that it made me very aware of the fact that, you know, there are,
challenges that are experienced by people with just something that, we who are
sight enabled, could take for granted as in receiving matters. So it's
certainly landed very, very well, and, its meaning and impact was certainly not
lost on me,’’ Rob Quintas, City of Cape Town’s MMC for Urban Mobility.
Done by: Mitchum George
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